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In this issue
Little Bytes
The potential cost of not protecting your internet
A LANcare client’s internet traffic suddenly went through the roof with over 20Gb used in just one day!
Thanks to the proactive monitoring system we have in place, we were able to quickly trace this to a contractor who’d simply connected his PC to their network in order to access the internet.
Imagine the potential cost to this business if they were relying on a monthly report? 100s of Gbs of data could’ve been added to their Jetstream account – and they would’ve been none the wiser until the bill arrived!
Top tip – beat the price rise
As the credit crunch takes hold overseas and demand lessens for products, manufacturers are running down their inventory, and vendor stocks are being depleted at the existing prices (even reduced prices in some cases). So, if you’re thinking about replacing your hardware, now is a great time to buy – you may even bag a bargain. Be warned though, that once these stocks have gone, new stocks will be at increased prices. So if you’re thinking about new hardware, talk to us now and make sure you beat the price rise.
DatastorForum
Want the inside track on data security, compliance, management, optimisation and virtualisation? Then you need to get along to the DatastorForum . This is a fantastic opportunity to mix and mingle with leading vendors and see the latest developments in action. Forums will be held in Auckland, 5th May and Wellington, 7th May.
And if you register before 6th April 2009, you’ll receive a gift with Datastor's compliments.
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Hi Copyright Legislation
What's it all about?
The Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act, came into force 31st October 2008, with the exception of Section 92A, which was due to become law 28th February - but didn’t.
The purpose of the Amendment is to enable action against internet users who believe “all music, movies and games are ‘free’ on the internet”, and to provide protection for New Zealand’s creative industries. Which is fair enough.
The problem has been with Section 92A, which requires internet service providers (ISPs) to "reasonably implement" a policy to disconnect "in appropriate circumstances" the internet services of users who have repeatedly downloaded or uploaded infringing music, movies, games and other copyright material. This section of the Act was held back to allow the main ISPs to agree on a workable solution for managing and administering such users. Unfortunately, not only have they been unable to come up with a common framework, the IT and internet industry is united in its criticism
of the Act, saying it's too difficult for them to identify repeat offenders and that taking action according to the Act, could in fact, be an infringement of an internet user’s human rights.
A new deadline of 27th March has been set for the main players to come to an agreement. In the meantime, our advice to business is to act as though this is merely a reprieve – and to get your internet security policies in order!
What does it mean for business?
If the Amendment becomes law, businesses will have employee relations and compliance issues to deal with. There are 2 key things your business needs to be aware of:
- If you are providing internet access to your employees, under the terms of the Act, you are considered to be an ISP provider and therefore have to take appropriate action if that employee is infringing the Act.
- If you don’t take appropriate action and there are repeated infringements, your entire organisation could be disconnected from the internet. How would your organisation cope?
What should you do?
There are software solutions which report on your internet traffic levels, sites accessed and downloaded content. However, by the time you read these reports, you could potentially have been cut off by your ISP! Consider a proactive reporting system that alerts you in real time of internet activity within your organisation instead.
Act Now!
Don’t wait until Section 92A becomes Law (or not). Act now:
- review what’s already stored on your computers. You’ll soon know if you're likely to have a problem or not.
- review your employee internet usage policies, amend them if necessary and be prepared to enforce the consequences if an employee doesn’t follow them.
- make sure you have adequate (real time) systems in place to record online activity and to control what is accessible online.
If you’d like to know more about how to prepare your business for Section 92A, or internet security in general, please contact your LANtech Account Manager today on 04 494 9670 , or email sales@lantech.co.nz.
Is your firewall up to the job?
A firewall is an integrated collection of security measures designed to prevent unauthorised access to your network. Firewalls are essential for any business that connects to the internet, stores sensitive data on their network, and would be compromised if the system was ‘hacked’. These can be “software” or “hardware” firewalls depending on the size of the network.
Unfortunately, we’re finding that older firewalls just can’t cope with the increased speed of the internet and the sheer volume of email and internet traffic. The result? Users have to wait for information which slows them down and restricts their productivity – ultimately costing the business money.
What to expect from your network firewall
- Be able to handle high speed internet traffic – 10Mbps minimum
- Have high performance deep packet inspection
- Gateway Anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and intrusion prevention
- Pro-active alerting for unusual events
- VPN encryption for remote connectivity
- Denial of Service Attack prevention
If you think your network firewall may be slowing you down, please contact the Sales Team to arrange a review.
Jargon Unjumbled
Managed Services Provider
This is usually an information technology services provider, who manages and controls a predetermined set of services to clients, such as desktop and security monitoring, patch management, remote data back-up and technical assistance. With the advances in internet technology, in many cases this is done remotely, in real time, therefore offering a number of benefits to clients:
- Customer peace of mind – your network is proactively monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a week.
- You have a single point of contact for all network issues
- Single supplier instead of multiple vendors
- Defined Service Levels (for service delivery)
- Known costs for management and fixed price contracts
- No need to pay for your own management and reporting systems
- Lower total cost ownership
Team Talk
Congratulations to our Managing Director Paul McQuinlan and his lovely bride Teresa, who were married last weekend. Teresa was pretty in pink – while Paul scrubbed up OK too.
Dedicated as always however, Paul was back at work on Tuesday – the honeymoon can wait, there are computers to fix!
Until next time,
the team @ LANtech
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